Monthly Archives: February 2004

Sullivan’s Troubles

Jay Currie has written a fine piece, published today in The American Spectator, the respected and influential conservative intellectual review.
Deconstructing eminent American conservative critic Andrew Sullivan’s waning support for the Bush administration, Mr. Currie covers the gamut of issues which confront libertarian social critics, the so-called American “creative elite”, who must square the circle of their 2000 support for Bush, in the face of the President’s 2004 religious right-endorsed, anti-gay, fiscally questionable, and reckless neo-imperialist foreign policy.

The immediate future in CPUs, Intel style

C|NET Hardware: By the end of the 2004, Intel should be positioned to release a blazingly fast 4GHz computer chip, the so-called Prescott CPU, with 1MB of of L2 cache and better HyperThreading.
What does this mean to you?
Well, if you’re an “early adopter” you’d better start planning now to purchase that soon-to-be state-of-the-art Prescott chip, sure to sell in the $600 – $700 range come December. On the other hand, if you’re like the rest of us, come Christmas 2004 that much-lusted after Pentium 4 3.2 chip — currently selling for $454 on NCIX.com — the one you wanted to buy at Christmas but couldn’t afford, oughta be down in price to under $200.
If you’re one of the fortunate computer users who own a custom-built system — one with an upgradeable ASUS or Intel motherboard that allows for easy chip replacement — by replacing your current CPU with the ultrafast 3.2 chip you’ll enter a new realm of computing ease, on the cheap.
Something to look forward to, don’t you think?

Nublu Sessions

NUBLU SESSIONS
Wax Poetic: With its mix of warm, earthy vocals and chilled laid back beats, Wax Poetic’s eclectic sophomore CD, Nublu Sessions, streams reggae, jazz and trip-hop into a lustrous and intoxicating burst of colourful dance beats. The first great CD of 2004, Nublu Sessions is world music par excellence. For more insight into this New York-based trip-hop outfit, visit All Music, and type the words ‘Wax Poetic’ into the AMG search engine.

Anti-Spyware Programmes: Just to Show You What’s Out There

Although VanRamblings.com recommends the free, effective and safe anti-spyware programmes Spybot: Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware, there are alternatives to these programmes out there.
The good folks at Download.com recommend any one of these anti-spyware programmes. Be careful, though.
Some of those who have used Webroot Software’s popular anti-spyware programme Spy Sweeper 2.2 (the most popular title presented on Download.com’s list) have published negative reviews of this programme. This site’s trial use of the programme was also far from positive.
As a rule of thumb when it comes to installing new programmes, it is best to be cautious. Do a Google review search to find out as much as possible about the programme you intend to download, and ask your computer techie friends / IT support person about their experience with the programme before downloading and installing any new programme.